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Sunday, August 4, 2013

Interview with SCHONWALD

Schonwald are an Italian duo, that merges postpunk with
wave and cold, hypnotic electronic sounds. They've recently released a highly
recommended 7" on US label HoZac. Both Luca and Alessandra answered my
questions.

Names and roles,
how long have you been a band, where are you from and everything people should
know about Schonwald?Luca: We started to play as Schonwald in
2008 we are a duo from Italy: Alessandra sings and plays the bass guitar and
keyboards I play the guitar and the drum machines. We released the first album called Amplified Nature
in 2009 onPocket Heaven Records from
Luxembourg. Ourdebut was in London at
"Myogenic Festival" and Amplified Nature has been supported by 4
European tours through Italy, England, France, Switzerland, Luxembourg,
Germany. A 7" single "Mercurial"has been realized last March and we've just
come back from the promotional tour. Click here to watch the official video.You've both been playing in (P)itch. Give
us more informations about this band and do you play or have played in other
bands?Ale: Yes, we have been exploring some
different musical styles with other 2 bands called Pitch and Vessel. Pitch was imprinted
by an alternative dream pop attitude while Vessel had more folk psychedelic
influences.Even if the name
Schonwald has German roots, I'm not really sure what it could mean. Can you
explain it and why a German bandname?Luca: A lot of people asked us about the
meaning of our name:Schonwald means in
German something like "protected woodlands" and it has also a personal
connection because it's a variation of my mother's surname, in fact I'm of
German descent, the correct surname is Schönwald.There's been a four year lasting release
hiatus between your 12" and your 7". For what reason?Ale: Because we were very busy touring and
recording with the other 2 side projects (Pitch/Vessel) along that period. At
the moment I quit with both of them because I prefer to focus with Schonwald
which is actually the main project.Do you have any
new releases planed for the future or do I have to wait another four year?Luca: Hopefully we should release the full
album early months of 2014 if we are lucky.You are the first
Italian band on HoZac. How did you get in contact with them and is it something
special for you to be on HoZac?Luca: We signed with Hozac Records after
having written and sent them some new songs. We knew this label from Chicago because they
issued many bands that we like, for example Black Bug, Smith Western, Dum Dum
Girls, Verma and we are honored to be part of this rooster.You've been
playing a tour through Europe some month ago. What was it like? best shows and
worst shows? any weird or extreme experiences you want to share with us?Ale: Touring through Europe was amazing. Each
time is getting better and better and fortunately we have only good souvenirs
and many magic moments about our shows; people we met, good food and see
fantastic cities. Relevant to the worst show I think was here in Italy just
because of a soundman and not to mention the sound equipment at our disposal.
He was completely in another world he preferred eating drinking and speaking to
his imaginary friend instead of to be helpful to the good realize of the gig.
Quite a bit of embarrassment..but a barrel of laughs. It's very hard to say which was the best show
because it's always great to be on stage, although we loved a lot our show in
London with UK Decay. It was really great.To be honest I only know a handful of
current Italian bands. Is the Italian underground scene underrated and which
current bands are worth to check out?Luca: The current alternative underground
italian scene not seems to be very healthy compared to 10 or 20 years ago and
honestly at this moment we don't follow italian bands because we are not
interested in.What do you prefer
a printed fanzine or a music blog?Luca: Actually we like both but I think that
the music blog now has more chances to share the contents.Your music partly
reminds me of German electronic music from the 70s. Do you like this music?
What do you think are the main influences for the music you play with
Schonwald?Luca: Yes, we love Bands like Kluster, NEU!,
Kraftwerk and our music is inspired also by the 80s sound. We grew up listening to the New York NO WAVE
scene and British post punk bands mainly.Ale: Moreover we live in Ravenna a small
town near the sea which is characterized by fog, marshes and swamps.These
places especially in winter are very suggestive and riches of gloomy
atmospheres. So it's very easy to have inspiration of creating our kind of
music.I love Italian
hardcore from the 80s. Do you share my view and which are your favourite groups
from that period?Luca: Our favorite bands from that period
are RawPower, Indigesti and Negazione.Any last words?Luca: We have just put on soundcloud a re-working
of "a forest" by The Cure and it'sfree download. Check it out here!https://www.facebook.com/schonwald.musichttp://hozacrecords.com/2013/03/schonwald/http://soundcloud.com/schonwalderhttps://twitter.com/#!/weareschonwald

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After a two year hiatus Ride A Dove is back. But there's one major change: Instead of detailed record reviews, I only post short descriptions of bands that share free audio downloads of their releases. Download the records and get your physical copies. Support the bands and the labels.